Julie Bishop rules out GST rise and fuel excise re-indexation

CHRIS UHLMANN: One person who knows more about politics in the west than most is the Deputy Liberal Leader and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Foreign Minister, welcome to AM.

JULIE BISHOP: Good morning Chris, delighted to be with you.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Julie Bishop, can the Coalition hold the three Senate seats it won in September's general election?

JULIE BISHOP: Well, Chris, we certainly won three Senate seats fair and square at the last election and while the outcome of this election won't change the Government and the Coalition still won't control the Senate, I believe that electing a strong Western Australian Senate team will give Western Australia a better deal.

It will certainly help us to get rid of the carbon tax and the mining tax which has been such a dead weight around investment and productivity in Western Australia.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Are the carbon and mining taxes really still top of mind for people or are state issues in play now, like the fact that the Treasurer Troy Buswell has had to stand down and is facing court charged with 11 traffic offences?

JULIE BISHOP: Well, the feedback I'm getting is that people are very much focused on the federal election.

And this is not an election that we sought. It is as a result of mistakes made by the Australian Electoral Commission, but the feedback that I get is that people want the government that they voted for last September, a majority voted for the Coalition. They want them to get on with our plan for Western Australia - for more jobs, to ease the cost of living, to get rid of the carbon tax, get rid of the mining tax, are very much focused on the issues that we took to the last election, and the fact that we've not been able to deliver on some of those promises because Labor and the Greens are blocking it in the Senate. That's the issue that people are focusing on for Saturday.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Are you worried that people just won't turn up to vote or that disaffection with the major parties will see more minor party wildcards?

JULIE BISHOP: I haven't seen any evidence of that. I think people understand that to get rid of the carbon tax, get rid of the mining tax, legislation has to pass the Senate and they know that a Liberal team will help do that. So I believe that the Liberal Party will do well on Saturday. I'm certainly hoping we will.

The Greens and Labor are still persisting in standing in the way of the Government's legislation so our focus is on reducing living and business costs so that Western Australia is a great place to live, a great place to do business.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Are you annoyed by having to rerun this election because of the electoral commission's mistakes, because you cannot recreate the mood of the last election in this election?

JULIE BISHOP: Well, it's not a question of me being annoyed. I think the people of Western Australia are entitled to be very frustrated by the fact that they have to return to an election just six months after they had cast their votes on the 7th of September. So I'm sure the people of Western Australia are frustrated by it and the electoral commission's made this mistake.

We have every reason to hope that the electoral commission will be able to conduct this election properly. The people of Western Australia deserve no less.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Now you and your senior colleagues at the moment are locked in budget discussions trying to work out how you do deliver a budget surplus over time. The Treasury Secretary last night suggested that the Government should begin a discussion on lifting the rate of the GST. Is that a conversation that the nation needs to have?

JULIE BISHOP: We're not changing the GST. Our promise at the last election was that there'd be no increase to the GST and that remains our position.

But Chris, the GST is a state tax. The states get all of the GST, so it's not a quick fix for the federal budget which was left in such utter disarray by the former Labor government - $123 billion in accumulated deficits.

So what we're going to do is make some hard decisions over government spending. It was out of control under the former government. We're determined to be a government that lives within its means.

CHRIS UHLMANN: You also have to look at taxes though, don't you? Should fuel tax excise be indexed again?

JULIE BISHOP: Well, these are not matters that I intend to discuss prior to the budget. There is no plans to do that. The fact is though, we will have to make some pretty tough decisions and when you've got a budget in the kind of disarray that we inherited then we have to ensure that we get spending under control and that we live within our means.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Certainly, but you have two ways of going about restoring a budget surplus - that is to cut spending and to lift taxes. Are you looking at lifting taxes?

JULIE BISHOP: We're not a government that believes in higher taxes. We believe in lower taxes and I know Joe Hockey and the team are working very hard to cut out the unnecessary wasteful government spending that we've seen over the past six years under Labor.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Tony Abbott heads off tomorrow for his first visit to Japan, South Korea and China. What are the priorities for that trip?

JULIE BISHOP: This will be the Prime Minister's first official trip to these three great trading partners since he became Prime Minister. He's obviously been there in other capacities. But it will be to reaffirm our commitment to strong partnerships with each of the countries in China, Japan and South Korea.

There will be a strong focus on economic diplomacy for we have concluded a free trade agreement with South Korea and we are negotiating free trade agreements with both China and Japan.

And also in more general terms, our strategic relationship with all three remains important to us. They are amongst our largest trading partners and it's quite appropriate that the Prime Minister should spend some time in each country.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Well, we currently pay about half a billion dollars a year in beef tariffs to Japan and Korea and at best the Korea deal will see tariffs phased out over 15 years and I think 20 for Japan. Farmers are concerned that the Prime Minister might be about to sign up to a dud deal. Can you assure them that that won't happen?

JULIE BISHOP: That's not what the Prime Minister will be doing. We will not sign a free trade agreement for the sake of signing. What we will do is ensure that we can negotiate the best deal we were able to and that it will be in the interests of Australia as a whole.

You see, other countries have signed free trade agreements. For example, the United States has concluded a free trade agreement with South Korea and the United States is capturing much of South Korea's very lucrative beef market because of that free trade agreement.

So we want to be internationally competitive, we want to ensure that we can find new markets and enhance established markets and find new sources of capital and the way to do that in part is through these bilateral free trade agreements that are undoubtedly in our interests because they create jobs and create opportunities for Australian businesses.

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